Seattle Seahawks Vs. Philadelphia Eagles Preview, Odds: NFC Wild Card, ‘Hawks Seek 1st Playoff Win Since 2017
The Philadelphia Eagles enter the NFC Wild Card playoff round on a roll, winning their last four straight to finally take command of the conference’s East division. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks who just a month ago appeared poised to win the NFC West and grab a first-round bye, dropped their final two in a row, leaving them with the fifth seed in the conference.
Nonetheless, the Seahawks come into the game as favorites, albeit slight ones, according to oddsmakers. Despite traveling across the country, Seattle has been installed as a one-point road favorite, according to odds published by The Action Network.
But bettors, apparently, are even more confident of a Seahawks victory than the oddsmakers themselves. According to Action Network tracking, 78 percent of all wagers placed on the game have gone Seattle’s way.
The site says that it has been tracking betting patterns since 2003, and in that span, only the 2008-2009 Indianapolis Colts were more popular. But not by much, with 79 percent of all bets being placed on the Colts in their AFC Wild Card game against the then-San Diego Chargers. The Colts ended up winning that game.
History appears to be on the Seahawks’ side. Not only did Seattle win the lone matchup between the two this season — a 17-9 road win on November 24 — but the Seahawks have won five straight, and seven out of eight, over the Eagles, dating back to 2005. But the Super Bowl 49-winning Seahawks have not won a playoff game since beating the Detroit Lions in the NFC Wild Card round on January 7, 2017.
ESPN previews the second NFC Wild Card matchup, in the video below.
Though it took that four-game, season-ending win streak to get the Eagles into the playoffs, Philly becomes one of only four NFL teams to get into the postseason in each of the past three seasons, according to PhiladelphiaEagles.com. They join the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and New Orleans Saints. The Eagles are only two years removed from their first and only Super Bowl championship.
The Eagles have also been stellar at defending their home field. Since 2016, when Doug Pederson took over as coach, Philly boasts the NFL’s second-best home winning percentage at.735 (25-9). Fourth-year quarterback Carson Wentz trails only two sure-fire Hall of Famers — the Patriots’ Tom Brady, and Saints’ Drew Brees — for the best home winning percentage since 2017, according to the PhiladelphiaEagles.com stats.
Wentz managed 4,039 passing yards and 27 TD passes in the 2019 season, despite the Eagles becoming only the sixth division-winning team since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger to see none of their wide receivers reach 500 yards in the air, according to ESPN stats.
The Seattle Seahawks vs. Philadelphia Eagles NFC Wild Card game kicks off at 4:40 p.m. EST at Lincoln Financial Field in Philly. The game will be televised nationally by the NBC television network, with an online stream provided by the network’s NBC Sports Live Extra service.
